Expedition casts wide Net
for Bigfoot
By ALEX BREITLER
Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

August 13, 2005
Saturday

HAPPY CAMP, Calif. - Tom Biscardi is on the hunt for Bigfoot,
and you're invited to join him.

For a fee, that is.

The controversial Sasquatch
sleuth has embarked on yet another expedition, this time in western
Siskiyou County where a flurry of sightings has been reported
in recent weeks.

This time, Biscardi is broadcasting
his search on the Internet, saying he hopes to bring viewers
around the world a genuine Bigfoot encounter - like the one he
claimed to have had near Burney, Calif., earlier this year.

Happy Camp has mixed feelings
about this Bigfoot business. Some boldly back Biscardi while
others skewer him for inviting ridicule into their community.

"There's the old-timers
that are saying, 'Yeah, there's something up here,' " said
Vickie Schmalzbach, who owns JavaBobs Bigfoot Deli with her husband,
Bob. "And then there's the group that says, 'Oh, brother.'
"

Three cameras are documenting
the 90-day expedition around the clock. The cost to viewers is
$14.95 for a seven-day pass and $59.95 for all 90 days.

Biscardi, a former show producer
from Las Vegas, said he's been exploring the woods since Saturday.
Braving triple-digit temperatures and swarms of mosquitoes, he's
been busy clearing brush, positioning cameras and riding ATVs
along what he believes to be a Bigfoot migration route.

He said he thinks two creatures
living in the area are responsible for recent sightings, at least
two of which involved motorists on Highway 96.

"We're very, very close,"
Biscardi said last week. "This is one of the hottest areas
I've ever seen in my life."

Besides footage from his jaunts
through the woods, the video feeds also feature locals sharing
breathless accounts of Bigfoot encounters, re-enactments of those
sightings and interviews with primate experts, Biscardi said.

Why charge the viewing public?
Biscardi pegs the cost of the expedition at about $400,000 so
far. He said he needs the money to pay his 16-member crew and
to purchase the equipment needed to hunt the beast and broadcast
the adventure.

"This stuff didn't cost
20 cents," he said.

Biscardi, 57, has made ambitious
plans to track and even capture Bigfoot in the past, including
the use of net grenade launchers or even "sleep bombs"
that would be dropped on the creature from the air.

This time he has a "secret
weapon" that he won't discuss.

He will say that his broadcast
has more than 40,000 subscribers, some from as far away as Ireland,
Russia and Poland. Many likely found out about Biscardi's mission
during recent coast-to-coast radio broadcasts.

He has already gained some
notoriety for claims that he's spotted Bigfoot five times in
more than three decades of searching.

Back in Happy Camp, some residents
say their town shouldn't embrace the expedition, arguing it promotes
the region for the wrong reasons. On Tuesday, a television news
crew from the San Francisco Bay Area toured the area with Biscardi.

"Those in town supporting
this idea that Bigfoot exists are doing it simply to make money,"
wrote John Goodwin in a recent letter to the online Happy Camp
News. "Guess what? Happy Camp looks ridiculous as a result."